


She wore white

by Bluwails



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Hollowed_ground_Au, the wl is evil is in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:02:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28578684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluwails/pseuds/Bluwails
Summary: Invited out for drinks and to shoot the breeze, Dryya reminisces on the past before her and her mother ventured to Hallownest.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13
Collections: Tangled Roots





	She wore white

**Author's Note:**

> Based in the Hallowed-ground Au. In this Au Dryya is a child of the white lady and a previous wyrm and is more of an unwilling accomplice to her mother's deeds.
> 
> Been so fun gabbing with everyone working on it. When I tell you its been fun!-

Evening in Hallownest was much like the others Dryya experienced. Bustling with bugs enjoying the nightlife, drinking and conversing with friends. So why had she come to this place? 

Her friends had invited her. The king granted them a day off as he spent time with his beloved beast and she had agreed without fully understanding what she wrapped herself in. So here she was, in the courtyard empty aside from the knights that invited her, Dryya stood at the precipice of the gate wrapped in flowers as the knights sat laughing among themselves and drinking.

  
  
  


"-And that is how I arrived to Hallownest." The burly bug in the group concluded drinking deep from his cup as the others applauded his tale. 

  
  
  


"Dear Hegemol, we would never suspect you to be the adventuring type." They ooed and awed at him as they clapped.

  
  
  


"Dryya, what of you?" The table paused looking to her as she drank from her cup. 

  
  
  


The question was so innocent and quick she found herself blindly answering,"Most of my memory is of training and the sprawling wastes." She laughed dryly, " we managed the best we could. Though Mother made things as easy as she could. Finding places for us to live." 

  
  
  


The table starred in silent reverence as she spoke. Why are they hanging on her every word?

  
  
  


"Is there something on my mask? You all are staring as if-"

  
  
  


"No-Che'! It is just so odd to see you share so much without needling you." Ze'mer waved, raising her glass to her lips. 

  
  
  


"It must be the wine." Hegemol guffawed holding up his pint. "They say liquor loosens tongues. And it seems that even the fierce Dryya isn't immune."

The laughter erupted again as Hegemol poured another hefty round assuring her cup spilled over. 

  
  
  


"So Dryya what was your home like?" Isma snickered as she placed her hands into the tray of food. "Hegemol is right. It is not often we get you to open up like this."

  
  
  


"Yes, yes! Strike while the iron is hot!" Ogrim [shouted] pointing smiling like a weaver with a new catch."We know little of the queen and yet she gives so much so selflessly." 

  
  
  


Selfless? Hardly. 

  
  
  


"U-um, My mother and I-." Dryya clenched her jaws. What did she remember about her childhood that she didn't repress? What could she tell that wouldn't reveal the truth and damn her and her mother all at once. 

  
  
  


Could she tell of the last home they lived in? Its bending trees, the smell of sun, The image of the red wyrm's head placed gingerly in her mother's jaws accompanied with the cacophonous crunch of his neck between her teeth that followed. She swallowed as her senses trembled and the image flashed behind her eyes just before her mouth began to move.

-*- 

From what she remembered being told Her Father was a wyrm of many wives and his kingdom a sprawling one that cascaded over Cliff Sides with rushing clear water that resembled molten silver. All his wives were capable but none as capable as her mother. 

Her procession had arrived as quiet as a gentle breeze and caught his eye almost instantaneously. He fawned over her beauty and brought her into his fold. 

And she proved her worth. Under her supervision his kingdom had grown stretching the tops of his claimed cliffs and was reaching for any independent nation below it. Trade routes, technology, arts had all exploded thanks to her. And his kingdom flourished.

It was truly a Spectacle to behold. The other wives,however, hated her. Some outsider with her demure ways and gentle tone had rocketed herself from a concubine to his queen in a matter of years. And they wanted her gone. And attempted at her life more than once.

-*-

The knights swallowed as Dryya paused drinking from her cup.

Her head had begun to swim and her heart piqued as the others whispered. 

" so the queen was a queen before." 

"You can see it in her behavior."

"But the fellow wives. How cruel of them-"

They should have tried harder. 

-*-

But her father would not allow infighting and would banish any that fought in his presence or any that he caught wind of.

So the fighting became a competition. Who could do what better than her. That leveled to who had a stronger clutch than her. But none of their eggs would make it. And those that did the children would fall ill, die or vanish only to be found floating at the bottom of the falls. Fate was cruel to them and no one mourned more than her mother. 

But when she became heavy with eggs and her father fearing for his lineage caught wind, he granted her a room all her own. And when she and her healthy siblings were born a celebration poured into the streets.

She was the weakest in her clutch but as her mother said, " The fairest and most beautiful to have ever been made. " and her mother oddly favored her. She carried her everywhere with her, dressed her in the best before her siblings and whispered gentle words to her that carried her to sleep. 

Her caring mother. 

-*-

"Dryya was very loved and favored, we see." They laughed and nudged her.

"Being mothers favorite is always nice-"

"One could say that. "She could close her eyes and remember every garment she ever wore while they lived there. She remembered her mother being dressed in white. She paused and stared into her drink her fingers quivering.Ah, what a crooked memory to have surfaced. She wore white the day she ate her family.

-*-

She remembered how mother held her that day. She had kept her close away from her siblings and courts. Not even an antenna away from her. Her white garments glittering like live lumaflies as she placed her at the threshold of her fathers private room. 

A sickness had taken over and her father was furious. Mother had no words for what it could be and none of his consultants had made any progress on solving it. He once Jovial father had bared his teeth and became a true beast himself. 

"Be a good girl and wait. Don't move. Even if it was scary."

Father was scary. He yelled at mother but she never flinched. Threatened mother but she never moved. She wanted to be like her. An immovable force that not even a wyrm could budge.

"Yes mother." 

And her eyes crinkled that familiar crinkle. When she replied with something her gentle mother approved of. And her heart swelled. 

And she stood.

  
  
  


And she heard. 

  
  
  


The yelling and breaking glasses. The threats and mumbles. That quickly turned to pleading and what sounded like...like a fight. 

Such a drawn out fight that ended in an eerie silence that threatened to break anyone that moved. 

Then she saw her sibling. Her elder, the first to hatch. He was strong in spirit and resembled her father the most. She remembered how they ran towards her.

She remembered how their hands gripped hers. Shaking so violently that she could hardly believe one could move in such a way.

"Run!"

Their words muffled as the sound of screams over took her attention. 

"THE KING THE KING IS DEAD!-"

"YOU BEAST!-"

"YOU MONSTER!-" 

And she froze to the floor. 

"DRYYA, WE MUST RUN!-" her sibling had screamed into her face. Her eyes finally focused on theirs. The panic in their eyes, their trembling hands the smell of hemolymph on their cloak. 

  
  
  


"DRYYA PLEASE!-"

  
  
  


She was trembling. Trembling so hard her joints hurt and her eyes stuck watching as the opalescent roots erupted from each room all in search of something. Something she knew but refused to accept. 

"We cannot stay here!-" they began again holding her face pleadingly as they shook her.

  
  
  


GIGI, KOWA, KOMAL, FATHER, ALL OF THEM! Mother she was-" 

  
  
  


Mother was what? Loving and caring mother was what? Was she harmed too? 

The hall groaned under the weight of a sudden tremor as an abundance of her mothers signature flower exploded into life above them. The flowers that only bloomed when mother was pleased with something had overtaken the room shining bright like burning lamps that threatened to blind her.

When was mothers scent so harsh?

  
  
  


Their sibling shrieked and held her as they pulled her away.

  
  
  


They were running away. 

Her throat burning as if forced to swallow coal,

"SHE'S- SHE'S A MONSTER!- 

She's what

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


"SHE ATE THEM ALL!- "

-*-

  
  
  
  


"Dryya, So what happened?"

How long had she been staring into space? When did she stop talking?

"W-we left." Her voice dying in throat as her nails dug into her palms. 

They didn't escape. Farthest from the truth. 

She became a prisoner. Mothers good toy that listened when she said listen and jumped when she said jump. 

"The ruler was inept." She paused acknowledging the dryness in her throat as the lie clawed up her throat "They caused its fall."

  
  
  


"Ah, what a shame." The group groaned apologetically. 

  
  
  


Dryya placed the cups to her lips; drinking deep from it and allowing the liquor to take the swirling feelings away,"A shame indeed." 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to ask about it on tumblr @Bluwails and @aggio-chaos. Great ppl on there. :D


End file.
